Extracellular vesicles as carriers of suicide mRNA and/or protein in cancer therapy

Gene therapy involves the introduction of genes (termed transgenes) into cells to compensate for a deficiency or to make a beneficial protein. Gene therapy can used as a form of cancer treatment. A particularly attractive paradigm in this regard involves the selective introduction of transgenes into cancer cells that converts inactive prodrugs into active chemotherapeutic agents, thereby triggering the death of cancer cells. Since prodrugs are inactive, they tend not to cause significant side-effects and are well-tolerated by patients relative to conventional chemotherapy. Several viral and nonviral vectors have been used as delivery tools for suicide gene therapy. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are now recognized as a promising class of nonviral delivery vectors. Here, we describe a method in which a suicide fusion gene construct is loaded into EVs derived from a non-tumorigenic cell line. Delivery of these modified EVs to glioblastoma cell lines and spheroids decreases glioblastoma cell viability, induces apoptotic cell death, and inhibits tumor growth in vivo.